“Hola Felipe,
This is quite a profound post… one it is good to read today…
“It is the place where we may find ourselves after we have spent a lot of time and effort trying to avoid. The place that is the opposite of our best dreams for ourselves and our loved ones.”
That is the worst of the struggles, isn’t it? And that is the one I have the hardest difficulties to deal with… We work so hard, we trust so deeply, we keep the hopes, and yet, the point we come to is one where we have to reconcile with the fact that things are not going to be as we want…
But, at times (not always, I must admit), I can see what David Whyte may have meant when writing “what you can plan is too small for you to live”… Who of us dreamed to meet each of us? Who of us thought the Camino would change us so deeply? Or in your case, have a movie? Or even better, that walking in your backyard to recover from cancer surgery would open this world to you? Or me… find a friend like you (or Rebecca, or Jim and Gloria, or Catherine and Dana, or PFJ), so far away from home? And honestly, trying to get ready for our “get-together in the Veranda”, I was thinking how that started and what is looking like it will be… and certainly, this phrase “What you can plan is too small for you to live”
I think we must trust (I know I MUST, and specially these days) in this other phrase of another David Whyte’s poem that calls that “Everything is awaiting for you”… and in this “Everything”, different from what we dreamed, there is a lot more than we could have ever imagined. It is a practice to see this… but a good one for when the “Everything” we see hurts deeply.
Keeping the grateful eyes Love,
Cris”
This is Cris’s comment today on, Some Blue Sky, yesterday’s post. I was talking about how my buddies were stepping forward with stories of how they encountered “bad luck” and what they were doing about it. They weren’t all “succeeding”. That is the central theme of that meeting as I put together in my own head. We all find ourselves in these “bad places” if we live long enough.
Cris does a nice job of following the thread that David Whyte has laid down about our lives being way more than our puny imaginations, dreams and preparations. And that brings both “good” and “bad”, right? That is what we have to see and deal with at a certain point, the realization that life with a capital L is totally out of control. Well, our control that is. And that is scary as hell for us.
Well, of course, there is the flip side of the bad stuff, the blessings that arrive on our doorstep. The “bigger than life moments” that occur for us. But that is what Cris is saying that when you are living Life with the big L you are open to all of that. Wowie Zowie!
Wowie Zowie Loves, Felipé!
I love this Cris and Felipe. David Whyte is also one of my touchstones in this life journey.
I love the poem Enough which contains
enough, these few words are enough,
If not these words this breath,
If not this breath this sitting here, this opening to the life I have refused
Again and again
Until now…
When I found out about my cancer this year, the world cracked open. And yet… it has a gift this terrible illness has put me right here IN my life and asks me if not now then when with a new urgency.
Karen ~ we quickly get to the edge of words here where we are. But yes, I understand. Felipé.x
Karen, your words are inspiring! What a beautiful message and a reminder to live in the present. Thanks for sharing! Keeping you in prayer.
Dear Karen,
I love those words of David Whyte too. I must say that John O’Donohue way to say things are closer to me than David Whyte’s (David has carried out John’s work I feel, but from a psychological perspective, but there are so many others: Rilke, Fr. Richard Rohr! )
Anyway! this is not about writers but Poetry and Life (with Capital letters!)!!! Yes, that poem “Enough” is another one that comes to rescue us… and it is always the same idea, isn’t it? Until something that leaves us powerlessness is forced on us, we seem to be unable to see how life has been opening for us… and it is not that we don’t want to, I think we don’t have the glasses to see that vast horizon (or depth). But I don’t think it is “all enlightenment”, I think it is more like when we start the path of prescription glasses… as we go, we need more… (and it is not casual I think that prescription glasses are needed most often after 40… or that as Richard Rohr says, there is this spirituality of the second half of life, or that David Whyte quotes so much “maturity”… and it also makes sense why this is a walking path and not a highway… and one that requires human efforts and not one that we can just “skip comfortably” in a business class seat…
Looking forward to Live-Streaming with you when in the “Caminoheads Veranda”!
Hugs going from Argentina to England!
Cris
Felipe and Friends (That sounds like a possible book title?)
The “Celebrating 50 Wonderful Years Farmer” and his beloved have just returned from that trip/cruise of a lifetime. In all of the totally filled days there was always the time to check in on Felipe, and all the life-affirming things he has to say, and the equally life-affirming comments he gets from his loyal readers. His assignment to prepare for some cogent and inspirational remarks when we all gather at Raven Ranch has never been far from my mind. My Dear Cathy has asked (rhetorically, of course), if Phil has a clue as to what that assignment could entail, i.e., giving me the floor with basically a wide-open opportunity to talk. 🙂 Her light-hearted remark is a bit at odds with my slight trepidation of addressing the audience that I know makes up this group. It seems needless to say that there are some thoroughly exceptional folks on that list.
Either I have not suffered enough, or I’m not very good at recognizing my personal suffering when I see/feel it. My ingrained (as opposed to consciously seeking) philosophy is that ALL things are good, until proven otherwise. I don’t think of that as looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Like the little farm boy given the task of shoveling away a mountain of horse poop, I figure that there must be a pony in there somewhere. This huge basket of Blessings that God has given me exudes its own aura of colors and textures and vibrations that create a force-field of Good as they expand outward. So I can feel nearly as much satisfaction from giving some coins to a Prague street beggar as I can from viewing some of the most beautiful medieval architecture on the planet. I literally feel my best when making a stranger smile with a completely cost-less smile of my own .
My life has not been bereft of pain and sadness. Losing a truly beloved mother in law at a ridiculously young age to cancer, the death of our eldest daughter’s first child, knowing the cruelty of family bankruptcy and the whims of weather’s extremes on our farm business. Accident deaths to people we have known for a lifetime, seem particularly cruel. But in all these circumstances, there is implicit the “opportunity” to comfort, succor, and help to heal. If the present pain is mostly my own, there is the “opportunity” to have the courage to share, and thus dilute it. A huge burden is more easily carried by multiple people. The beautifully real feeling of love and caring being transferred physically with a long hug.
I’m looking forward to being totally “blown away” by the presence of all of you!
Semper Fi,
PFJ
PFJ ~ geez, your volcano is erupting today! Can’t wait to see you again at our rendezvous. I have no time right now to answer such a tome but I will put it in my pipe and smoke it. Love you man! Felipé.
I love you too PFJ!!!!
I never ever imagined my life would have people like you two… I am SO grateful…
I can’t wait to share time with you and I hope that you you have quite a number of hugs in storage for me.
Love to you two! Love you two too!
Cris
Cris ~ yes, we two, PFJ and PFF, unique specimens. I like the hugs in storage part. Felipé.x